ground

Here you go. First Quixodelic Record of 2012 in association with the excellent New Radish, and it’s my dear friend Simon Piler singing to you 6 songs of this-worldly folk-blues all the way from sunny Alaska. While the Daydream Generation continues to fade away and yours truly attempts to gather his bearings over the edge of the world, our interstellar lo-fi roster of acts are still obviously out there doing what they do. Neat little records like ‘ground’ are the sort of thing that makes me remember why once upon a time I loved doing this so much.

In many ways these tracks are the logical extension of ‘Lo Swing…’, stripped back to mostly just guitar and voice, more intimate and spontaneous on the ears, and it features at least 5 of the very best Simon Piler songs you are likely to hear, including the epic ‘i praise homeless gods’. For all you crazy ‘KINGTIME’ fans, don’t get your hopes up – ‘ground’ is its polar opposite, right down to the lower-case letters. These are take-it-or-leave-it hymns to and from the wild landscapes of America and the equally wild landscapes of the human heart.

In Simon’s own words: “I had a mad weekend of it and ended up on the other side with a record album. It was pretty crazy how all the pieces just sort of knit together and I woke up this morning with this sombre little guy neatly parcelled on the computer in front of me. It’s called ‘ground’. And it’ll be the first solo Simon Piler album since ‘theatre music EP’, I think. The Atom Band have thoroughly departed, I guess. Though I think that you will find they are not forgotten!”

“Mad weekend” however is a misleading concept – most of these songs it would seem have been bubbling away at the bottom of Simon’s mind for some time, and the music, lyrics, even quality of the recording are all testament to something that has been patiently and deliberately brewed (like all good dream-brews should).”